23:53 - Sunny PagliaccioNote to self: Do NOT open links on max volume in the middle of a quiet night. Otherwise, not bad. :D

23:52 - ApothecaryFast food workers planning a strike in support of $15/hour wages next month. I'm a tutor in a reading lab at a college and I don't even make that much, a bit of an overestimation of one's importance, don'tcha think?

After the release of the widely hated "Are You Dead Yet?" many fans were left holding their breath wondering if it was perhaps just an off album or if Children Of Bodom had truly started a downwards spiral? Well this was the answer, and it seemed to be in favour of the pessimists.

With this latest effort the band seemed to take a more abrasive approach, making the keyboards less prominent and creating an overall "smaller" sound. While there is probably many people who can appreciate hearing a slightly less keyboard-drenched sound in exchange for some solid riffing, it appears the band has exchanged the keyboard dominant sound for....well, nothing! This album seems also to have a less catchy sound to it, and let's face it, the one thing that made Children Of Bodom very attractive was just how catchy the songs they could write were.. Even the previous album (as bad as it was) had more of this quality to it. Generally the song writing in this album is very anti-climactic, like its 4-5 minutes of build-up and then the song is over. Part of the anti-climactic tendencies this album has could be due to bad arrangements, the tempo changes as well as the vocal/lyrical arrangements sound awkward and severely misplaced most of the time.

Not a bad album to be honest, nd I certainly don't think it's as bad as people say it is-in fact, I prefer it to 'AYDY?'. The opening three songs and 'Smile pretty for the Devil' are all very fun to listen to, with some excellent guitar work from laiho and good melodic passages. Obviously the synthesisers and symphonic material isn't exactly the band's highlight, and it never really works alongside their brand of melodic death metal, but it isn't a total mess-up either. The vocals get a bit boring after a while, especially on the monotonous semi-ballad 'Banned from heaven', but it still makes up for this with other better songs on 'Blooddrunk'. Certainly the band's best album since 'Hate Crew Deathroll'.